SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING AND ASSURANCE

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept which states that business is accountable not only to its owners or shareholders but to a wider group called stakeholders that include employees, the community, NGOs, and governments, among others. CSR brings up positive impacts to business, community, and the environment and contributes to spurring economic growth in the developed, developing, and emerging economies in the region. CSR disclosures measure and report a company’s performance on relevant environmental and social matters, featuring a mix of quantitative, financial, and qualitative information that include measures such as corporate resource use, waste management, impacts on biodiversity, energy use and emissions as well as data about gender distribution in the workforce, practices on health and safety, customer satisfaction and privacy protection, and human rights under a referenced document in CSR reporting from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The accounting community, through IFAC and other accounting professional organizations, is participating in GRI’s multi stakeholders approach in creating and reviewing a set of sustainability reporting guideline, the latest of which was released in October of 2006. Disclosures dealing costs, expenditures, and revenues related to a company’s environmental activities can be found in CSR reports. To provide guidance on the measurement and reporting of these accounts, the International Federation of Accountants published in 2005 the document “International Guideline for Environmental Management Accounting”. Environment-related accounts are classified as those that relate to expenditures for treatment and disposals, investments for environmental protection and management, materials and processing costs of wastes. Product and service innovations spurred by a deep understanding of sustainability issues can result into a company’s competitive advantage. Equally essential are accounting education programs that improve competencies to enable accountants to participate more meaningfully in the corporate sustainable development agenda. The inclusion of sustainability issues in continuing education programs and accounting university curricula can go a long way in ensuring that the accounting profession’s voice is clear and counted in the global efforts for sustainability.

FUNCTIONS

1. Promote to the corporate sector and the accounting community the growing business importance of environmental and social issues.
   
   
2. Play a key role in promoting Sustainability Reporting and Assurance practices in the Philippines by cooperating with various stakeholders in the country and abroad.
   
   
3. Make available through articles, conference papers, and seminars updated information about the fields of sustainability accounting and reporting, environmental
   accounting, greenhouse gas accounting
   
   
4. Participate in the forthcoming activities of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) with relevant stakeholders to actively promote the practice of Sustainability Reporting and Assurance in the Philippines and in the Asian region.
   
   
5. Explore the possibility of giving out recognition to Filipino companies issuing Sustainability Reports with the goal of achieving full compliance with international guidelines
   
   
6. Work with various PICPA sectors to provide updated information in the of fields of sustainability accounting and reporting, environmental accounting, greenhouse gas accounting, and related topics. This information dessimation will be through articles, paper presentations, and seminars
   
   
7. Lead PICPA activities for environmental causes such as the celebration of the World’s Earth Day, and other local environmental events
   
   
8. Develop the Committee’s Plans and Budget for approval by the Liaison Director and for submission during the Annual Planning Conference.